Technically Speaking

Have been hooked on the idea of Groove and secure file sharing/collaboration for a while now, but the new version SharePoint Workspace 2010 is an even better application.

I am by no means an expert just yet, although I am hoping to dig in even more as I get my more opportunity with the product.  I did try a large file transfer within a Groove workspace and it was surprisingly fast across the LAN.  The file was about 500Mb and it was completed within 10 minutes.  Somehow I expected more delay than that.  Not sure if I would try such a big file across the Internet, well unless I knew the connections on both ends were fairly good.

What does SharePoint Workspace 2010 do?

This application is billed as the offline client for Sharepoint, however it still supports work group style collaboration that was available in Groove, but adds SharePoint functionality.

Personally I have found that disconnected collaboration works very well in both Groove and Workspace.  Suppose I am going to work on a project with two other individuals and they do not work for the same organization as I do.  Workspace 2010 (and Groove) allow me to create a collaboration session (or workspace) for the project and invite them to join.  When they do this all parties can trade files, messages, and other information.  Without the need to worry about firewalls or access rights.

Since all the content is encrypted share away, there is not too much need to worry about file transfer (although there is always some need).

Another way I have used SharePoint Workspace (and Groove) is to trade files with my other computers.  Suppose I am working on something at home and need to get it to the office.  Sure I could use a flash drive or cart my laptop to work.  Or I could put it in a workspace to which both of my computers belong.

This scenario might be good for those who are occasional road warriors.  In the office most of the time, but attend trade shows or other events from time to time.  Maybe they have access to the VPN, but if they are occasional travelers they may not.  Using a tool like SharePoint Workspace, the traveler could use a workspace on their work computer and on their laptop (or a company one that they checked out) to allow access to needed files while on the road.

Does it work?

So far, in the testing that I have done it works very well.  I have a few work spaces configured to trade files between my various PCs.  Another nice feature is that you can create an account (associated with your Live ID unless a Groove Server is used) and open or subscribe to as many work spaces as you need without the need to log in separately for each one.  Of course the multiple account scenario seems to be supported as well.  I tried that for a while, but didn’t like logging on to other identities to work with certain files.

When Office 2010 gets to you (it is already available on TechNet and MSDN and maybe even to business) I recommend giving SharePoint Workspace 2010 a look.  It might be just the collaboration tool you need, both with and without SharePoint.

Business Intelligence or BI has been a buzz word in the IT industry for quite some time.  But what does it really mean, and how can it help your organization better acheive its goals?

Business Intellegence to me is a method of reviewing organizational data to make informed decisions to benefit the mission of an organization.  Using the data that an organization is collecting and generating during its usual process, the business decision makers (and others) can be empowered to make better decisions.

During Tech Ed last week I heard a comment about business decision making and thought about how I have seen it done.  While it is true, that organizations should empower employees and value their input, the true test comes when an organization is faced with decisions that affect their comptetitive edge, and many times, those who work with the data directly are not included in the overall process of deicision making.  It is beginning to be seen that the more involved the employees are in decisions that affect them, the better for the organization the decision can be.  Making decisions in the executive suite, a.k.a. a vacuum, is usually not going to acheive the best results, but there are many organizations that continue to do things this way.

Tools to improve analysis

Many executives get reports from the employees who work with data and technologies.  To me, the executive summary is just that, a short discussion of how a dataset affects an organization at the 15,000 foot level.  But drilling into the details isnt something that happens at that level.

Using technology like Sharepoint is great, but if the reports shown to decision makers in their current form arent really being considered when decision time rolls around, what good will the tech do?

SharePoint is a technology that improves visibility of existing data to make analysis easier to handle for the employees who dig in enough and are familiar enough with the data to make sound decisions about it.  For executives, it serves more to improve visibility, not analysis necesarily.

Take the tech to the analysts

In deciding how to improve BI within an organization, work with those who are in the trenches to prove the concept of an application like SharePoint.  Once the capabilities of the application are proven and can be shown at the user level, then the discussions about licensing and cost can begin.  If the approach is reversed, there will be no effective way to prove the usefulness of the application and a salespitch is not the best way to gain more BI and technology.  The overall ROI may be low, and the benefits may be huge, but attacking the issue from the top down may well be a death sentence for the project.

If you take the time to pilot the idea with the users and analysts who work the data, your results may be tangible up front and convince the right BDMs that this technology will improve business, not just give IT a new toy to play with.